Network of the European Cultural Cities 2000
The brochureInfoC9Eng
DINA (Digital is not Analogue)DINA
Screenshots of the project and of the websites
| Project timing
Total working: June 1999 – December 2000 |
| Supported by
– European Community City of Bologna |
Personal responsibilities
– Cafe9/Salara.net European Project content coordinator for the City of Bologna
– Responsible of the project’s website activities
– Responsible of the Salara website, one of the venues of the project
– Supervisor of the final activities’ plan and of the activities’ running
– Curator of the relationships with the other european partners
– Consultant on the project’s communications
| Team (Bologna)
Coordination Technical responsibility Cafe9.net web portal Communication, Webmarketing and PR WebTeam Salara and Cafe9 Graphics Salara Peoples in Villa Serena Collaboration |
Description
Cafe9 is a project of a cultural and artistic network, which connects seven European Cities of Culture for the year 2000 – Avignon, Bergen, Bologna, Brussels, Helsinki, Prague and Reykjavik – by means of a large band network: these cities will be connected one to another and also they will be connected to the world by means of Internet and a Web site. It is a project that is supported by the European Community.
The main aim of Cafe9 is to create a social/virtual space where people can co-operate and communicate in a creative way. In the era of digital networks, public spaces should be kept for a free creative action and expression. The conceptual starting point is the European tradition of the “culture” of the public café, as a place that reflects the social, intellectual and cultural life of a society. This metaphor is extended to the non-place of the networks and Internet, where it can be “mapped”, so that participants are able to experience the opportunities of multicultural exchanges and communication.
Inside Cafe9 there will be different aspects, which can coexist and co-operate: local aspects, which will be powered by the large band internal network; general aspects, which will be based on the Internet activity of the Web site. This network, during its “internal” large band improvement in the different Cafés, will be active from the 1st of September to the 31st of October 2000; in this period, it will produce, diffuse and share events and information and it will help interactions between people. Its “external” improvement by means of Internet and the Web site will be activated from the second half of June 2000.
Cafe9 is firstly based on a wide network, composed by people in the European Cities of Culture for the year 2000, however it will spread through the social fabric of each city and even more. This human network will form a base for the technical realization of an ISDN/IP network, which will link events in the cafés of each city. This social and technological network will become a space for the diffusion of a wide gam of projects – coming from the city itself and/or other cities -. It is up to the people who are responsible for the contents in each city to choose the projects.
Each city will have one or more places, which must be properly equipped by: computers connected to the network; an area for stages, events and performances; audio instruments; video instruments; good connections to Internet; access to servers; a series of technologies and services based on ISDN/IP (FTP, IRC, multipoint ISDN, videoconference, listservers, telnet, WWW/VRML hosting, RealAudio/Video). Other technologies could be activated after an evaluation following the demand and in accordance with the available money. The cities will develop co-operational projects in different domain (artistic, communicative, educational, etc.); in the cafés there will be people capable of encouraging the participation of the audience.
Finally, it is important to notice that the impact of Cafe9 could be quite difficult. Cafe9 will be a very personal process of acknowledgement for everybody who takes part in it (organizers, providers of contents, audience, artists…): this is its particular strength. The more meaningful sign of its success – which is the most difficult element to understand – will be the collective energy of the whole network.
The staff that will select the projects of Cafe9 is composed by a person who is responsible for the contents of each city:
Avignon: Emmanuelle Baron
Bergen: Jorgen Larsson
Bologna: Pier Luigi Capucci
Brussels: Dirk De Wit
Helsinki: Kati Åberg
Prague: Jennifer De Felice
Reykjavik: Hlynur Helgason
Kinds of projects
Cafe9 looks for projects that emphasize the use of local and global networks as creative spaces for communication, acknowledgement, artistic activities and the building up of social network in long terms. There aren’t any geographical limits for the projects, although those ones which come from one of the European Cities of Culture for the year 2000 or are directly addressed to the Cafe9 participants will receive a particular attention.
The projects will be chosen according to their capacity to attract a local, regional or global participation in a creative and communicative process, or according to their capacity to get in touch and get involved in different realities and/or other projects. The organizers are conscious that this process can have lots of different shapes, from a social and a technical point of view; they will try to help the improvement of these shapes, accordingly to the technological limits. The organizers in the nine Cities will inform and encourage groups, communities, single people, in order to receive not only projects that have already been realized and achieved, but also new projects that might take advantage from the platform – and these projects will be assisted in their formulation -. The project Cafe9 depends absolutely on the efforts made by all the participants to create a solid network in the remote and in the local dimension; besides, it depends on the number of demographic groups that take part in the project. A wide social inclusion is the key for a good network.
Cafe9 offers a gam of technological instruments to stimulate a process of art making. Nevertheless the subject of the artistic content in the frame of telecommunication is complex and it differs in a meaningful way from what most of people consider as art. One of the ways to imagine the difference of Cafe9 consists in the fact that the artist who creates is not only a creator of a static content (some paintings for a gallery), but he is also challenged to create the place where an artistic exchange can happen (a project of a gallery). An additional element, which makes the situation more complex, is the fact that the work of art itself can be modified by the audience, by the participants. We may hope that the participants will get the idea that all art is communication (the process of moving human energy from one person to another one) and that this process – we can call it dialogue, communication or whatever else – can be art.
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Some images from the projects (more images)
Resources
Cafe9 is a container for shared experiences, capacities and pieces of information, especially in the frame of art. It is a platform, which allows to fulfil and diffuse projects and events, put in touch situations, open co-operations. Cafe9 has a limited budget for the projects that have to be supported, since its economy and its structures are overall addressed to build up the network promoting these projects and/or diffusing them accordingly to the above-mentioned technologies. The projects will be chosen and supported on a central level (by the council composed by the responsible people for the contents in the seven cities) and on a local level (they can be assisted by each city), but responsibilities of function and economical management belong to the people who directly follow these projects (the holders and the managers).
As the other cities, Bologna will offer a physical venue and the equipment for transmission and sharing – by ISDN and by Web – the contents of the projects and the events. As the other cities, Bologna cannot be charged for the specific necessities of the realization of these projects, although it can find some ways to make the realization easier, according to the kind of project. It is up to the chosen projects, by means of the sum of money that is paid to them on a central or local level, to take care of their realization and participation in Cafe9.
Kinds of projects and events
There are different opportunities to present and address projects, events, realizations and pieces of information to Cafe9; people who are interested are invited to use the following categories in presenting their ideas:
a) Live Projects & Events
Even in Bologna, in the places consecrated to Cafe9, there will be activities and live events, which will be broadcast by ISDN in the other Cafés. These events can concern music, videos, concerts, technological art, performances, theatres, dance…The realizations that will be based on the use of the network and on the co-operation of several cities will receive a particular attention.
b) Network Projects
Some projects will be supported by Cafe9 (the decision is made by the council composed by the responsible people for the contents in the seven cities). These projects should be conceived in order to find a way in the Web or broadcast in the internal ISDN circuit of the Cafés and they have to be able to integrate other Cafe9 projects. A list of the projects that are selected by Cafe9, the presented projects and the relating contacts will be put in the Web as soon as possible and the Web site will be changed little by little.
c) WebGallery Projects
Inside the Cafe9 Web site, which will be promoted on an international level, there will be a virtual gallery, which will give hospitality to European artists. The artists will show their works of art inside this place. The works of art must be simple works or activities and they can belong to an artistic or a cultural domain. They should be conceived expressly for the Web and they should use the network (Internet or generally virtual networks where audience is allowed), as a fundamental instrument that is necessary for the artistic production. These works of art should be conceived and realized for the network and they cannot exist without the network. Consequently, for example, documentation projects for shapes of art that are realized out of the network won’t be taken into consideration.
d) Calls for collaboration
Inside the Cafe9 Web site, there will be a wide area consecrated to projects
that are in search of co-operations and resources. This area will concern
artistic, didactic and educational projects.
e) Artists’ database
In addition, inside the Cafe9 Web site, there will be the first European artists’ database, which will contain information about curricula and activities. This database will contain information about artists working in different expressive domains, such as painting, sculpture, installation, technological arts, net art, photography, video, music, theatre, performance… As soon as they will be available and fixed on a European level, the specific technical details that are required in order to present information will be diffused.
Cafe9.net events in Bologna
Apocalypse (5 Dj concert)
Dire Gelt Concert (Yiddish music)
Video from Salara exhibition “Codici virtuali”
Serena Soundtrack (Dj concert)
Y2KFresco (multimedia artistic project)
CafeNights (TV cultural program in English)
Ars Electronica reportage from Linz (video in English)
Among Others from Bologna
EuroVision 2000 from Bologna
digital_is_not_analog. International NetArt Conference
Polypolis (video performance)
Hotel Europa, European project.
Play the Game! (conference on videogames)
DINA (Digital is not Analogue, net art webgallery)
ArteVideoTV 2000 (video)
ArtScapes (artworks’ presentation)
Minus Esse (internet performance)
RadioCafe9 (interactive web radio of independent european labels)
Natureware, in collaboration with Avignon (international Conference on artificial life)
Hotel Roma (video performance)
Moving City from Bologna (video performance)
Pulsimer in concert (poetry & music concert)
WebSounds (conference on Network Music)
